Ultrasonic imaging apparatus and a method for displaying diagnostic images

• US 8,708,911 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Sato, Takeshi, Osumi, Ryota
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAO, ELMER M
• Application Number:
  US11/937,063
• Publication Number:
  US 20080161690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,364 Days
• Field of Search: 600/407, 600437-472
• US Class Current: 600/441
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display composite display in devices for short-range imaging with acoustic waves G01S7/52074
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/488 involving Doppler signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52044 Scan converters

Abstract

A transmitter/receiver scans a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe and obtains first ultrasonic data composed of ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line, and a coordinate conversion part included in an image generator performs an arithmetical operation by a GPU and converts the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system for image display.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus, comprising:

a transmitter/receiver configured to scan a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe, and to obtain first ultrasonic data including ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line;

an image generator including a graphics processing unit (GPU), the GPU including a coordinate conversion part configured to perform an arithmetical operation, and to convert the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system for image display;

a B-mode processor configured to generate B-mode data as a portion of the first ultrasonic data and to cause the image generator to generate converted B-mode data; and

a bloodstream information processor configured to generate velocity, dispersion, and power data as an additional portion of the first ultrasonic data and to cause the image generator to generate converted velocity, dispersion, and power data, wherein

the GPU includes an image display controller configured to synthesize the converted B-mode data with the converted velocity, dispersion, and power data, and to determine a combination of the B-mode data and the converted velocity, dispersion, and power data to be displayed at each point, based on image conditions and threshold information,

the image display controller includes exactly four parallel processing circuits, including three parallel processing circuits and an alpha circuit, wherein, in one mode, the three parallel processing circuits are configured to process color and the alpha circuit is configured to process opacity, and in another mode, the alpha circuit stores the threshold information and is configured to perform the synthesizing process to synthesize the B-mode data and the velocity, dispersion, and power data, and the three parallel processing circuits are configured to generate B-mode images and generate Doppler images from the velocity, dispersion, and power data in parallel with the synthesizing process performed by the alpha circuit,

the coordinate conversion part is further configured to perform an interpolation arithmetical operation of interpolating one point in the second coordinate system, based on a plurality of points in the first coordinate system, and

in performing the interpolation arithmetical operation, upon reception of an input of a kernel size that is a size for filtering, the kernel size being a higher order than 2×

2, low-order 2×

2 bi-linear interpolation is performed by a hardware circuit of the GPU to determine first interpolation values, and a second interpolation value is found by executing a program loaded by a programmable processor of the GPU that implements higher-order interpolation than 2×

2, based on the determined first interpolation values and a predetermined interpolation function.

2. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the coordinate conversion part is configured to obtain geometric conversion data that makes the first coordinate system correspond to the second coordinate system, and the GPU is configured to perform geometric conversion based on the geometric conversion data and to perform the coordinate conversion.

3. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the first ultrasonic data includes a plurality of types of bloodstream information;

and

the coordinate conversion part is configured to simultaneously perform a plurality of coordinate conversions of the plurality of types of bloodstream information.

4. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the coordinate conversion part is configured to determine a complex number whose elements are the velocity, dispersion, and power data of a bloodstream included in the first ultrasonic data, to calculate an interpolation value of the complex number, and thereafter, to convert the velocity, dispersion, and power data of the bloodstream individually based on the interpolation value to determine an interpolation value of the velocity, dispersion, and power data of the bloodstream.

5. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the plurality of types of bloodstream information includes the velocity, dispersion, and power data;

and

the coordinate conversion part is configured to simultaneously perform coordinate conversions and interpolations of the velocity, dispersion, and power data, by making them correspond to the three parallel processing circuits.

6. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus, comprising:

a transmitter/receiver configured to scan a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe, and to obtain first ultrasonic data including ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line;

an image generator including a processor configured to perform parallel processing;

a B-mode processor configured to generate the B-mode data as a portion of the first ultrasonic data and to cause the image generator to generate converted B-mode data;

a bloodstream information processor configured to generate velocity, dispersion, and power data as an additional portion of the first ultrasonic data and to cause the image generator to generate converted velocity, dispersion, and power data;

an image display controller configured to synthesize the converted B-mode data with the converted velocity, dispersion, and power data, and to determine a combination of the B-mode data and the converted velocity, dispersion, and power data to be displayed at each point, based on image conditions and the threshold information; and

a coordinate conversion part configured to perform an arithmetical operation using the processor, and to convert the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system into a second coordinate system for image display,

wherein the image display controller includes exactly four parallel processing circuits, including three parallel processing circuits and an alpha circuit, wherein, in one mode, the three parallel processing circuits are configured to process color and the alpha circuit is configured to process opacity, and in another mode, the alpha circuit stores the threshold information and is configured to perform the synthesizing process to synthesize the B-mode data and the velocity, dispersion, and power data, and the three parallel processing circuits are configured to generate B-mode images and generate Doppler images from the velocity, dispersion, and power data in parallel with the synthesizing process performed by the alpha circuit,

the coordinate conversion part is further configured to perform an interpolation arithmetical operation of interpolating one point in the second coordinate system by using the processor, based on a plurality of points in the first coordinate system, and

in performing the interpolation arithmetical operation, upon reception of an input of a kernel size that is a size for filtering, the kernel size being a higher order than 2×

2, low-order 2×

2 bi-linear interpolation is performed by the processor to determine first interpolation values, and a second interpolation value is found by executing a program of the processor that implements higher-order interpolation than 2×

2, based on the determined first interpolation values and a predetermined interpolation function.

7. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:

the processor is configured to perform graphic drawing instead of a CPU.

8. A method for displaying diagnostic images, comprising:

scanning a subject body with ultrasonic waves via an ultrasonic probe, and obtaining first ultrasonic data including ultrasonic data in a first coordinate system that is along a scanning line;

performing an arithmetical operation by a graphic processing unit (GPU), and performing coordinate conversion of the first ultrasonic data from the first coordinate system to a second coordinate system for image display;

generating B-mode data as a portion of the first ultrasonic data, and generating converted B-mode data;

generating velocity, dispersion, and power data as an additional portion of the first ultrasonic data, and generating converted velocity, dispersion, and power data; and

synthesizing the converted B-mode data with the converted velocity, dispersion, and power data, and determining a combination of the B-mode data and the converted velocity, dispersion, and power data to be displayed at each point, based on image conditions and threshold information, wherein

the GPU includes an image display controller including exactly four parallel processing circuits including three parallel processing circuits and an alpha circuit, wherein, in one mode, the three parallel processing circuits process color and the alpha circuit processes opacity, and in another mode, the alpha circuit stores the threshold information and is configured to perform the synthesizing step to synthesize the B-mode data and the velocity, dispersion, and power data, and the three parallel processing circuits are configured to generate B-mode images and generate Doppler images from the velocity, dispersion, and power data in parallel with the synthesizing step performed by the alpha circuit,

the step of performing the coordinate conversion comprises performing an interpolation arithmetical operation to interpolate, using the GPU, one point in the second coordinate system, based on a plurality of points in the first coordinate system, and

the step of performing the interpolation arithmetical operation comprises, upon reception of an input of a kernel size that is a size for filtering, the kernel size being a higher order than 2×

2, performing low-order 2×

2 bi-linear interpolation by a hardware circuit of the GPU to determine first interpolation values, and finding a second interpolation value by executing a program loaded by a programmable processor of the GPU that implements higher-order interpolation than 2×

2, based on the first interpolation values and a predetermined interpolation function.

9. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 8, wherein:

the coordinate conversion comprises obtaining geometric conversion data that makes the first coordinate system correspond to the second coordinate system, and performing geometric conversion by the GPU based on the geometric conversion data to perform the coordinate conversion.

10. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 8, wherein

the first ultrasonic data includes a plurality of types of bloodstream information, and

the step of performing the coordinate conversion comprises simultaneously performing a plurality of coordinate conversions of the plurality of types of bloodstream information.

11. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 8, wherein

the step of performing the coordinate conversion comprises finding a complex number whose elements are the velocity, dispersion, and power data of a bloodstream included in the first ultrasonic data, calculating an interpolation value of the complex number, and thereafter, individually converting to the velocity, dispersion, and power data of the bloodstream based on the interpolation value to determine an interpolation value of the velocity, dispersion, and power data of the bloodstream.

12. The method for displaying diagnostic images according to claim 10, wherein

the step of performing the coordinate conversion comprises simultaneously performing coordinate conversions and interpolations of the velocity, dispersion, and power data included in the plurality of bloodstream information, by making them correspond to the three parallel processing circuits.